Somali pirates 'seize 30 tanks'

Why is there a Ukranian ship of the coast of Somalia carrying T-72 tanks...?.... that just so happens to get seized by pirates? Conspiracy!?

!?



But seriously, I doubt the rebels would be training in how to use the tanks let alone use them effectively.

[edit on 27/9/2008 by C0bzz]

Well this is an interesting little story, I read about it briefly in the paper and chuckled a bit - now I read they are serious tanks (I just assumed they were real old cast off's) It made my little ears prick up.

I notice no one has linked This story yet....

THE Royal Navy has been ordered not to arrest pirates — in case they claim asylum.

Warships must simply watch if merchant vessels are attacked, it was revealed yesterday.

Meanwhile crews have been warned that fighting modern-day cut-throats could violate their HUMAN RIGHTS.
............................
Yesterday respected shipping newspaper Lloyd’s List revealed: “Foreign Office officials are understood to have advised the Royal Navy not to confront or arrest pirates in the region, for fear of transgressing human rights legislation or encouraging their seeking asylum once taken to the UK.”

Now I know that link is from the Sun - but quite a few other scources, the Telegraph for instance, took down the story. So I'm gonna have a quick search for this Lloyds List.

Edit - you have to subscribe to Lloydslist.com to read the articles, I had a quick go with a bugmenot login but no joy

[edit on 27/9/2008 by Now_Then]

reply to post by MischeviousElf


Sir. as far as the USA in Mogadishu I disagree on the influence issue. I was there on 3 October 1993, the result of what happend was a direct cause of piss poor planning and the oxymoron called military intellegance. We did pretty DAMN good playing the hand we were delt. My seventeen fellow Ranger's and Delta Force members did NOT die in vein. We went on that mission with a little more than a few hundred men and were up against tens of thousands. Did I mention that their losses are unknown but estimates range from one to several thousand. We were not there to assert control or force our ways on the people. We were there to stop the war lords from starving and killing the people of the country of Somolia. The reason this did not happen and the situation exsist now is due to the cut and run policy of the Clinton adminastraition. You sir should understand all of the facts before you engage your eating hole without mental thought.

I cant wait to see the Russians blow them out of the water, these pirates have been allowed to f--k around now for far too long. Its time they be taught a lesson.

For the life of me I cant understand why these merchant ships cant even spray a firehose at the pirates or even have armed guards. If US Merchant Marine crews are trained with and issued firearms why dont other nations do the same? Some US Merchant Marine vessels even have mounted .50 M2 machine guns and other weapons mounts ranging from Stingers to Mk19 grenade launchers (only those belonging to the Military Sealift Command have mounted weapons systems while the others just have small arms - pistols, shotguns, etc).

The somali pirates getting ahold of tanks and a shipment of ammo is frightening to say the least... Assuming they do the Less scary thing and keep the tanks on land I'm sure the situation will resolve itself. However if they apply the previous ingenuity they've shown and find some way to mount the guns or whole turrets onto boats... Talk about a game changer. For those who scoff and think they couldn't do this, read up on the technical war... their stuff might not be nearly as pretty as ours but they whip up some pretty nasty toys and have been doing so for a long time

reply to post by roguetechie


Good point - one big boat - strap the whole tank on it, cut out all the excess - everything that don't interfere with the operation of the gun turret - wow that actually sounds like the most fun you could have with an old tug boat, a tank and an oxy-acetylene torch

The answer to Pirates is Sonic Weapons (unless the pirate develop a super ear-plug)

www.guardian.co.uk...

As to men learning to operate a tank... if they can start them, they will learn.
It's only a tank. The T-72 is a 40 year old beast that as built in large numbers.
If they left them on the ship, or lined them up somewhere on land, it would only take a
couple of Russian Su-25 Frogfoots a few passes to waste all of them.

Originally posted by C0bzz
Why is there a Ukranian ship of the coast of Somalia carrying T-72 tanks...?.... that just so happens to get seized by pirates? Conspiracy!?

The T-72 tanks are very often sold by ex-Soviet republics (which are now acquiring newer equipment or just don't need the older tanks) to 3rd world countries. It is very possible that these tanks were being transported to some country in Africa. I think it is more likely that these tanks were sold either the new Iraqi army.

reply to post by roguetechie


One anti-ship missile or torpedo will take care of that problem.

Anyhow the pirates just bit into the worldwide arms trade and scored. They can't use the tanks themselves because they are useless without supporting combat personnel, vehicles and massive amounts of fuel. A couple helicopters from any of the African governments can deal with these 30 tanks.

I wonder who the pirates are going to try and sell the tanks to. I also wonder if the pirates aren't some kind of staged middle man working for the Russians or maybe the U.S. for some scheme of supporting one of the regional strongman.

Originally posted by tyranny22
Interesting times.

I can't wait to see the retribution Russia deals out to a bunch of rag-tag pirates.

You might not have long to wait!

Russia Sending heavily-Armed Patrol Ship to Somali Coast to Combat Piracy

The Russian Navy's central command has sent the patrol ship, Neustrashimy, to the coast of Somalia after pirates seized a Ukranian vessel in the region.

For the record, piracy as a jihadist activity has a pedigree at least as old as the Barbary conflicts with Europe and the new United States, and the Islamic slave raiding pirates vividly described in Giles Milton's book White Gold.

Navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo, says the Neustrashimy, which belongs to the Baltic Fleet, has been sent as part of Russia's aim to combat piracy.[...]
******SKIP******
Pirates hijacked Ukraine's vessel Faina under Belize's flag en route to Kenya in neutral waters not far from Kenya's coast on Thursday (local time).

Some reports indicate that the Ukrainian ship was carrying military hardware, including nearly 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for armoured hardware.

The patrol ship Neustrashimy is equipped with anti-submarine and air defence missile systems, a 100 millimetre artillery gun, torpedo systems and rocket-assisted bomb launchers.

"Pirates" be warned.

It also has a Kamov Ka-27 ship-based helicopter on board.

Pirates better hide!

Didn't realize they were asking a ransom for the return of the pirated ship and it's cargo!

Pirates Lower Ransom Demand to $5 million

Pirates who seized a Ukrainian vessel loaded with tanks and weapons off the African coast have lowered their ransom demand to $5 million.
Russia has sent this frigate to the Somalia coast after the hijacking of a Ukrainian ship.

The pirates initially demanded $35 million and no military action, said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association. They decreased their demands for several reasons, Mwangura said.

Those reasons include that the crew is from eastern Europe and not the United States, the weapons the ship carries are secondhand, and there is no way to unload the tanks without coming onto land, he said.

It would take a HUGE crane to unload a tank from a ship! Kind of hard to sell somebody a tank that you can't get off the ship!

It's hard to believe, but they actually were paid a ransom before from Japan!

Meanwhile, Mwangura said an Egyptian ship seized by pirates has been released, and a Japanese ship was released after a $2 million ransom was paid.

Found another interesting article about the pirated "tank" ship!

US Destroyer Watching Hijacked Ship Off Somalia

A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew.

So now at least we know the none of the weapons that are still on the ship will be unloaded!

The tanks were being sold to Kenya. Anything going from Ukraine has to go through four seas, and the suez canal. After they leave the red sea and enter the Gulf of Aden, they just happen to be vulnerable to the pirates which is off the coast of Somalia. They have to pass the horn to get to Kenya. This was merely a good score to the pirates. They should just strip down the tanks and reinforce their tehcnicals with the armor, but then again I cant say what their plans are.

Originally posted by Thebudweiserstuntman
Suppose we can be thankful no munitions were amongst the lot, however on the other side of the coin you can be sure Russia will be wanting to make an example of the pirates who stole their stuff as a warning to anyone else!

Russia isnt going to do a thing... They are more concerned about quantity over quality... theyll just crap out 30 more shoddy made T-72 tanks... Besides they have the T-90 and T-80 series... T-72 is stoneage compared to T-90... However I see the war on terror starting to shift from Iraq and Afghanistan to Somalia and Afghanistan again... We already do air strikes in Somalia... Whats to keep us from not learning from our mistakes and move 100,000 troops to Somalia and spread our military out even more? We should be saying forget you guys... Pull out of the UN, bring all our guys home, and build bases here in the states and rebuild our military... Not try to police the world... Let the Arabs kill themselves.... We got better things to worry about like a Cold War with Russia starting all over again...

[edit on 09/20/2008 by ki11ma11]

Perhaps something is being overlooked.

Did you notice that the Russian ship set sail before the tank ship was hijacked?

Rumor has it they were deployed to recover this ship's cargo. Not the tank ship.

Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died...

[edit on 9/27/08 by makeitso]

reply to post by makeitso


Incredibly excellent thing to point out...

I knew Iranian ships had been captured before, but I've never heard that the pirates had gotten sick after boarding the vessel.

Mystery surrounds hijacked Iranian ship

Angered over the wave of piracy and suspicious about the Iranian ship, authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4. Osman also confirmed to The Long War Journal that during the six days he negotiated with the pirates members of the syndicate had become sick and died. "That ship is unusual," he said. "It is not carrying a normal shipment."

www.longwarjournal.org...

So were the contents of the Iranian ship simply toxic, or did it contain nuclear material?

Alright, careful about talking about that ship, it may derail the thread from the ship we're supposed to be talking about.

The ship hijacked off the Somalian coast carrying 30 Russian made T72's, plus ammunition, was bound for Kenya. The deal was made by the Ukraine, a legal arms deal with Kenya.

The big fear here is these 30 T72's can only be feasibly offloaded near where it was hijacked. It doesn't have the fuel necessary to run very far, and it would be pretty hard to make it very far regardless without being hunted before they get anywhere.
With that being said, my fear is these 30 T72's are going to make some warlord very happy.

Yes, the T72 is dated... it won't stand up against most modern tanks. Hence, why they're being sold...

... but as dated as they are, they are still just as effective as they've always been at suppressing civilians, and taking out other dated military vehicles, and other hard targets.

It's not like the civilians are going to have Merkava tanks to retaliate with.


As for conspiracies... yes Russia wants to be buddy buddy again with Ukraine... for obvious reasons. The Ukraine has a choice whether to side with NATO, or the Russian Federation. Clearly it's in the Federations best interests to have the Ukraine on their side.

Yes, the ship intended for interception set sail before the hijacking... but, it's a warship, and the Russians aren't known for just sitting idle by until something happens. Their ships are sent out on routine patrols, hence, the obvious choice of ship to intercept the hijacked cargo vessel, was one that had already left harbor.
So you've likely got nothing there.

This is all about politics.
It's a greased pig contest, and Ukraine is the pig. NATO and Russia are desperately trying to be the ones with their hands on it.

It looks like Russia is putting their money where their mouth is though, by taking action against those who infringe on Ukraine's property. (It remains their property until successfully sold.)

From NATO? I haven't heard a peep.

There are US warships in the area too... but they are merely "watching" the situation. Bureaucracy at it's finest.

It's high time someone blew these pirates out of the water. They've been getting more troublesome as time passes... if NATO doesn't want to get it's hands dirty, I applaud any efforts Russia is willing to make.

Let em have it boys.

a few weeks ago we have `outrage` over russia being `heavy handed` in Georgia , ignoring little details like political correctness and himan rights to send a message


and now we have a `go russia and crush them` all because of the above little details which tie down the west in law suites

These pirates are quite the capitalists.

And to think that they are making a killing on the free market just running around in little speedboats with guns and siezing ships completely at random.